Hello VGers. New Guy From Michigan

Started by belleswell, June 20, 2014, 02:51:48 PM

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belleswell

  Hello fellow VGers, (sounds like an old Star Trek movie). I thought I'd introduce
myself and what better way than a youtube vid or some of my music. I started playing
guitar in 64' after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, and I've been learning
ever since. Using the math they teach in schools nowdays, that means I've been playing
for about......... um ....... (dumbing myself down), ..... uh 2 years?  lol

  I've had most of the usual influences that many of us have had but must mention Mr.
Joe Satriani as being one of the largest in the last 30 years. His melodies and phrasing
are heartfelt and have had a large influence in my quest for the perfect note.

As a side note, I'm an electrician by trade and one of the best fisherman I know.
Fishing is not just a matter of life and death, It's much more important than that. lol

  I bought a GR 20 about 5 years ago and thought that it was a wonderful product, easy
to use right out of the box. Fast forward to my recent feebay purchase of a GR 55. What
a difference.(and not the good kind) First I'll have to get a flash drive to upgrade to
version 1.50. I learned this by watching some vids here and discovered I'm missing a
bunch of presets. Which type and size of flash drive, I have not read enough into the
topic to know that answer yet. I certainly don't want to purchase a Roland brand one
from Japan on the bay for 80 dollars. There must be a cheaper alternative. Feel free to chime
in with an answer on this one.

Secondly, aside from the needed upgrade to the latest verison, is the issue of the GK3
pickup and the 3 selections it offers. (flawlessly on my GR 20). To try and get regular guitar,
a mix of the synth sound, or the synth only sound. What a nightmare. I've browsed a few theads here
concerning this and not had much luck yet..  Aside from the instructions for doing this in the
threads on this topic, do I use the left mono out, or the guitar output jack for being able to hear
my regular guitar, or a mix of the two. Noob questions I know, and I'm sure I'll figure it
out, but comparing this so-called better version over the GR 20 has me wondering why they would make
it so difficult to use the GK3 pickup as it was intended.  A small rant I'm sure I'll get over
once I get it to do what I want.

Also I have a problem with gas. Just when I think I'm getting better, some piece of gear or
another guitar pops up that I end up getting. 32 guitars and way too many pedals.
I have a Marshall JMP, Marshall 6100 30th anniversary, Peavey JSX, and a Fender Twin Reverb,
spec  to blackface specs.

Cheers, Jeff

Advance thanks for all I hope to learn here about the GR 55.







    Satriani cover

http://www.soundcloud.com/belleswell

At my soundcloud page I have about 2 dozen and if I were to pick a few that
I think don't suck as bad as the others, (I'm my own worst critic), they would be:

2012 So Far To Go
Phrygian Dominant New Guitar Day
Latin Smooth

Some pics.






Elantric

Welcome to the forum!

Nice herd of guitars and gear there !


Start here: and repeat as necessary

GR-55 FAQ: TOP THINGS TO KNOW
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=4006.0

whippinpost91850

Welcome from a fellow Michigander of about the same age.

Be sure to read the top 10 things to know about the GR55. It's lot of fun. Fortunatly Ive sold off and downsized alot after having a huge collection like you. Yors is very impressive . Paul

GR-55 FAQ: TOP THINGS TO KNOW
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=4006.0

Chumly

Hello Jeff,
I'm a electrician as well albeit I now teach the apprenticeship program and am no longer on the tools. I have not gone fishing for many years but there was a time. I've been a guitar-synth player since the Casio PG-380 came out. A pleasure to have some commonalities!
I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman

belleswell

#4
  Thanks for the welcome guys. I have been busy all weekend trying to get this compatible with my pc.
Windows XP Media Edition. I had it working for a while and when I turned it off and tried later got no sounds. The Floorboard editor is installed but I can see it will take some time to learn all of the functions. The Librarian as well. Also used a cheap 4gb flashdrive to first save all my data, and then used it to upgrade to version 1.50. I wish I could get it working on my pc again as it worked with and without the daw I use, which is Reaper. When selecting it within Reaper at one point, I had a latency that was so bad, it was unusable. With Reaper off, when I finally got it to work it had a very,very small latency that was very usable. When I turned on Reaper it was still working that way with no latency. I must have changed some settings on my pc or the GR 55 to enable/disable my ability to hear it. I've played with audio device settings in the control panel of my pc as well as trying different settings on the GR 55. I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver without any success. Viewed  within my device file on my pc and it says its operting with no problems. I'm sure its an easy solution as I had it working once already, but I finally gave up trying to play through my DSM 1 monitors hooked up to my pc and plugged it into my Fender Twin. Not quite as nice as the monitors but it works. Still have'nt put much time into the GK3 pickup setting of guitar/mix/synth of which all 3 at my disposal would be nice.
Much to learn. I wish it was as easy as the GR 20 was.
Another small complaint concerns  my current pedalboard which is  fantastic. I'm very happy with it. When hooked up as an fx loop with the GR 20, I could dial in all my regular sounds and pedals, a mix of the synth and guitar, or synth only. The GR 55 has a decent collection of amp sims and effects but they cannot compare to my Marshall 30th anniversary blue tolex, or my fully stocked pedal board , and I have'nt even mentioned my Eventide, and TC toys in my rack. So, I wish I could incorperate those in a similar fashion as I had done with the GR 20. Maybe there is a way. I'm still in the very early stages with this and I can see I'll need much more time to figure out the nuances.


Quote from: Chumly on June 22, 2014, 01:44:27 AM
Hello Jeff,
I'm a electrician as well albeit I now teach the apprenticeship program and am no longer on the tools. I have not gone fishing for many years but there was a time. I've been a guitar-synth player since the Casio PG-380 came out. A pleasure to have some commonalities!

Thanks as well Chumly. I went through the IBEW residential apprentiship for 3 years to completion and then our director let us join in on the 4th and 5th year inside wireman classes so I have diplomas for both programs. What was nice about showing up for the 4th and 5th year inside classes was the study material I had already done about 90 percent of in my 2nd and 3rd year residential classes. I was everybodies best friend in my 4th and 5th year inside wireman classes as I showed up first day of class with most of the homework for the year already done. I just copied it from my residential books into the inside wireman books. lol    I've been an IBEW member for about 15 years and could have retired already but our pension is presently .08% and has been for the last 6 years. That rate is killing me and why I'm still working. Hopefully it goes up soon. Most all in our local are working now, and the few that we do have on the books, are there because they do not want to work. Great to make your acquantance .
Cheers, Jeff

papabuss

FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

Neardark72

Welcome Jeff,

I like guys that sends pics like yours. When I buy new stuff and my gf is saving "again?" It always pass when I show her pics like these saying, "well I don't have that much" :)
Nice equipment!

I see that you have the same issues I got when I first started. It seems like a mountain to climb, but remind yourself that it's doable and that you'll get there. The learning curve is slower than we usually used to, but it makes the achievement a lot more satisfying.
Just make sure you connect with the floorboard and it should work. Otherwise, I had an issue with the inputs and outputs settings because my computer added a gr55-2 in the settings. Sometimes I need to change from one to the other in the librarian for the input and output.

Take care and have a good studying!


whippinpost91850

Bellswell, where about in Mich do you live and where do you gig ?

Chumly

#8
Quote from: belleswell on June 22, 2014, 11:31:53 AMThanks as well Chumly. I went through the IBEW residential apprentiship for 3 years to completion and then our director let us join in on the 4th and 5th year inside wireman classes so I have diplomas for both programs. What was nice about showing up for the 4th and 5th year inside classes was the study material I had already done about 90 percent of in my 2nd and 3rd year residential classes. I was everybodies best friend in my 4th and 5th year inside wireman classes as I showed up first day of class with most of the homework for the year already done. I just copied it from my residential books into the inside wireman books. lol    I've been an IBEW member for about 15 years and could have retired already but our pension is presently .08% and has been for the last 6 years. That rate is killing me and why I'm still working. Hopefully it goes up soon. Most all in our local are working now, and the few that we do have on the books, are there because they do not want to work. Great to make your acquantance.
Cheers, Jeff
Good to hear, I've been with the IBEW since the late 1970's but here in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia there has been a decades long anti-union / anti-formal apprenticeship bias by both industry and government, thus leaving the electrical trades somewhat shattered in terms of both formal education and skill sets. Naturally I do my best as an electrical instructor to counteract these forces. In a former life I did a local solo act and my first backing tracks were produced by the Roland TR-606 & TB-303 (these were pre-MIDI). Right now I'm in the process of deciding what to do with my venerable but antiquated Yamaha QX-1 and Roland MC-500 II, time has not been kind to them alas but they made it possible for me to play many venues well before the emergence of decent laptops, ROM'plers, etc. and I'm have a hard time throwing them out.
I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman

belleswell

#9
Quote from: papabuss on June 22, 2014, 12:40:11 PM
Congrats!
Nice equipment..Jeff. ;)

Thanks Papabuss, the couple pics I posted only tell part of the story. My photobucket link tells the rest. Lets just say I may be a top contender for the fool and his money parted award. Here's the link.



   http://s196.photobucket.com/user/belleswell/library




Quote from: Neardark72 on June 22, 2014, 12:52:46 PM
Welcome Jeff,

I like guys that sends pics like yours. When I buy new stuff and my gf is saving "again?" It always pass when I show her pics like these saying, "well I don't have that much" :)
Nice equipment!

I see that you have the same issues I got when I first started. It seems like a mountain to climb, but remind yourself that it's doable and that you'll get there. The learning curve is slower than we usually used to, but it makes the achievement a lot more satisfying.
Just make sure you connect with the floorboard and it should work. Otherwise, I had an issue with the inputs and outputs settings because my computer added a gr55-2 in the settings. Sometimes I need to change from one to the other in the librarian for the input and output.

Take care and have a good studying!


Show her my photobucket pages above and you should be good for life.
Glad I could help.  lol 

I'm not sure what setting I need to change to get it working through my pc
again but I'm going to read a few threads again and post the questions I
may have in the appropriate thread. Thanks.




Quote from: whippinpost91850 on June 22, 2014, 04:27:40 PM
Bellswell, where about in Mich do you live and where do you gig ?

  Hi WP, I'm in the assy nipple area of the State. lol   Mid-Michigan.
My gigging days are long behind me, but I still play out on occasion and am presently jamming with
two different groups of guys, mainly for our enjoyment. No need to keep up with cover tunes, which I do not miss in the least. When we get together varies with everyones schedules but once a month or so we try to make it happen.  Bouncing  ideas of each other and try to do original stuff. Although what is truely original? Everything I hear and play in my own playing is nothing more than bits and pieces of everyone I've been influenced by, studied, or listened to. 
Nope, just a very expensive hobby for me nowdays.




Quote from: Chumly on June 23, 2014, 08:22:46 AM
Good to hear, I've been with the IBEW since the late 1970's but here in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia there has been a decades long anti-union / anti-formal apprenticeship bias by both industry and government, thus leaving the electrical trades somewhat shattered in terms of both formal education and skill sets. Naturally I do my best as an electrical instructor to counteract these forces. In a former life I did a local solo act and my first backing tracks were produced by the Roland TR-606 & TB-303 (these were pre-MIDI). Right now I'm in the process of deciding what to do with my venerable but antiquated Yamaha QX-1 and Roland MC-500 II, time has not been kind to them alas but they made it possible for me to play many venues well before the emergence of decent laptops, ROM'plers, etc. and I'm have a hard time throwing them out.

I assumed from your first post you replied in, that you were IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for those that are wondering about the acronym). We have also lost some market share in our secton of the State to the non-union contractors but are still holding our own. Great to have a couple of us here. Small world.

My gigging days are also behind me although I still jam with a couple different bands. Just for our own enjoyment though.

Cheers, Jeff       Local 665

MrEd